A Window Into the Workings of Zika

May 10, 2016

(New York Times) – The laboratory’s initial breakthrough, published in March with researchers at two other universities, showed that the Zika virus attacked and killed so-called neural progenitor cells, which form early in fetal development and generate neurons in the brain. In April, the team and other collaborators published a study in the journal Cell showing that this assault by Zika resulted in undersize brain organoids: Damaged progenitor cells created fewer neurons, leading to less brain volume. That may explain the smaller brains and heads, a condition called microcephaly, of some babies exposed to Zika during pregnancy.